I think Rogan has talked about that fight many times… He said something like people had no idea who Anderson Silva was and what level he was on. Rogan thought he’d school Leben, but I think he was almost as shocked as anyone else about how Silva did it
Agreed. Nobody knew him. Rogan barely knew him.
During the time period, very few people had access to MMA worldwide. Footage was bad vhs copies.
We recorded vhs from a live feed on those giant satellite dishes. There was no local cable with foreign tv.
Without the huge dish, no matter how big of a fan of mma, you were not watching it on PPV without a rich buddy who owned that dish. Same time, the internet took off but the footage & live streaming was utter dogshit. VHS copied to computers looked fuct. Apple/Macbook/iPhone gassed the cpu era over-night.
Some, if any, knew the flying heel hook loss to Ryo.
Ryo went on a streak ... and less than a year later, was KO'd by both Baroni & Hendo.
Both in the first round. Knew exactly who Andy was ... prior to Leben.
Which was not the guy who did that to Leben.
Watched Anderson fight Sakurai, Jeremy Horn, Otsuka, Lee Murray to decision.
Lee Murray, a KO striker, lasted to decision with Andy. There was no "Silva" aura.
He was showman, flashy, danced, weird angle kickboxer (like MVP now) but the aura wasn't historic yet.
Andy was not at Fedor level aura, yet.
Alternatively, watched Andy end Carlos Newton and break my heart. Absolutely animal. Terrifying.
Saw Andy caught in that "flying kneebar" from Ryo. Later realizing it was a heel-hook.
His fights were all over the place.
From single strike knockouts, to losing by flying leg locks, to decisions.
Leben's were not. Leben was this brick shithouse.
When Ryo faced brick shithouses, they KO'd him.
Back in early 2000's when MMA math was still tossed around.
Unlike revisionist history...
knockout against Leben was NOT on the bingo cards.
Bet Silva by decision at the time, while debating Leben by KO.
Andy completely finishing the guy in round 1 was shocking.
Leben got Newton'd. It was in this moment we knew Anderson Silva Era had arrived.